If you’re running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you can now download the August service pack and install the latest system improvements and bug fixes. These updates are optional, and if you turned on the Windows Update center, you still need to install them manually, and they won’t download automatically.

If you’ve never paid attention to these monthly service packs, you should start to download them regularly as they combine previously released updates, making Windows more reliable. Keeping your Windows 7, or Windows 8.1 OS up to date prevents bugs and various issues as well. Usually, service packs take about 30 minutes to install, and at a given moment, the installation process will also prompt your to restart your computer.

KB3179573 for Windows 7 brings the following improvements:

“Improved performance on specific networks that have a high-bandwidth and low latency.

Addressed issue with users encountering a bugcheck, when trying to access a domain DFS namespace (for example, \contoso.comSYSVOL) on a computer that is configured to require mutual authentication (by using the UNC Hardened Access feature).”

KB3179574 for Windows 8.1 is more generous:

“Addressed issue that causes Windows Gateway to remain disconnected instead of failing over when a failure occurs.

Addressed an issue that didn’t prevent other applications from using the desktop area used by application desktop toolbar.

Addressed an issue with OLE drag and drop in SharePoint after installing KB3072633, that prevents the download of a file by dragging and dropping it from Internet Explorer to Windows Explorer.

Addressed issue in the Windows kernel that causes Skype for Business to stop working.

Addressed issue that prevents the disabling of read or write access to removable storage media when the Audit Removable Storage Group Policy is enabled and prevents applying a Group Policy at the user level.

Addressed issue that causes the loss of available memory when running queries using the domain name service (DNS).

Improved performance by addressing an issue that was causing duplicate broadcast data packets to be received by each network interface card (NIC) and sent to applications, when NIC Teaming or Load Balancing/Failover (LBFO) is set-up in active/passive mode.

Addressed issue that sometimes causes backups to fail or servers to hang with drivers that use the IoVolumeDeviceToDosName() routine.

Addressed issue that was resulting in a spike in DNS entries, when DNSSEC validation is enabled in an environment where there were queries for nonexistent DNS records in domains where the DNS servers have conditional forwarders.

Addressed issue with domain controllers that periodically reboot after a Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) module fault, causing the interruption of application and services that are bound to the domain controller at that time.

Addressed issue with DNS servers that get stuck in a loop and stop responding to DNS queries.

Addressed issue with cluster services that stop working when network loss logging occurs.

Addressed issue that allows users to change a password from an external network via Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) when Proxy Enabled is set to No.

Addressed issue with data loss if a failover occurs when a Network File System (NFS) client tries to write data to an NFS server.

Speaking of updates, many Windows 7 users are reporting the Windows Update center gets stuck while searching for updates. If you encounter such issues, check out our fix article and use the workarounds listed there to fix them.